12 Days of Christmas 2015: Mickey's Christmas Carol

Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983)
Starring: Alan Young, Wayne Allwine, Hal Smith
Directed by: Burny Mattinson


Technically speaking, this may not be considered an actual movie, but it's celebrated in many homes nearly every Christmas and it was nominated for an Oscar, so I'm going to count it. In my final 4 days of the year, I'm going to close out 2015 by looking at the 4 versions of A Christmas Carol that I own. One of the most beloved Christmas stories ever told, there have been dozens of adaptations of the Charles Dickens novel, but the one that I was introduced to was Mickey's Christmas Carol. It should come as no surprise how much I love Disney, in fact you can probably imagine that I'm due for another Disney month sooner rather than later. But back to Mickey's Christmas Carol. There are tons of movies that have done A Christmas Carol well, so how does a half hour animated short fair with the rest of them? Would you be surprised that an animated short that has a third of the time that most movies do is capable of being one of the best adaptations of the novel?

No version of A Christmas Carol is successful without a good Ebenezer Scrooge, and this one is told via Scrooge McDuck. What else needs to be said? They both have the name Scrooge. Clearly, they are going to a good pairing. You get that he's greedy, but he has a joy to being greedy that's just enjoyable to watch. Making appearances in a few Disney comics, this short really put Scrooge McDuck on the map of Disney canon. Of course, this would lead to him being part of a great Disney cartoon in DuckTales (WOO-HOO!) and showing up in other Disney shorts for the last 30 years. Not a bad legacy for a character inspired by another character he'd eventually end up playing.

The other characters work out very well. You've got Mickey Mouse as Bob Cratchit, Goofy as the ghost of Jacob Marley, and Donald Duck as Scrooge's nephew Fred. You've got the main Disney powerhouse backing up this cast, and then you see them pull some more obscure characters for cameos. Jiminy Cricket, Pete, Mr. Toad, Willie the Giant and others are seen during Scrooge's haunting scenes with the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. I think it works better this way than if you were to use a bundle of Disney's most famous characters. It'd be kinda distracting if Pinocchio, Baloo, or Dumbo was playing one of the ghosts.

Mickey's Christmas Carol is successfully able to tell a large and universally known story and tell it within the span of a half hour. It's a short targeted towards families and I think it's a great medium to do so. If you've never read this story or seen another version of it in TV or movies, then Disney is making sure that you'll get the bare bones of this beloved tale. Like a very in depth SparkNotes version of the story. You know, the type that won't give you every detail, but will still get you an A. That's what this short is like. Great job Disney.


Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Mickey's Christmas Carol is one of the best executed Christmas specials ever, let alone of the best Christmas Carol adaptations out there. If you can track this one down, it's worth the watch every year from here on out.

Mickey's Christmas Carol and movie images are copyrighted by Walt Disney Pictures